I picked up Ben Folds’ new album Way to Normal earlier in the week — after I’d earned my Borders Bucks! I really became a Ben fan after meeting my boyfriend two years ago, though I’ve loved the Ben Folds Five song “Brick” since I first saw the disorienting video for it sometime in 1997. There’s something beautiful and haunting about his music — something real. I know I’ve blogged about it before, but it always bears repeating.

I’m loving “Cologne” — it’s such a beautiful, simple song. And, as always, it’s like one swift kick to the heart. I can’t get enough of those moments where you’re listening to something innocently — maybe driving along in your car, maybe on your iPod at work — and a tiny bubble of realization hits you: this is a song that could very well change your life. I know other people feel like that, too. This song will change the way you see yourself, the way you see others — this song will change the way you view relationships past and relationships yet to unfold.

Ben Folds has a lot of songs like that.

*~*~*

Cologne
“Way To Normal,” Ben Folds (2008)

Here in Cologne,
I know I said it wrong.
I walked you to the train
And back across alone
To my hotel room
And ordered me some food
And now I’m wondering
Why the floor has suddenly become a moving target

Four, three, two, one
I’m letting you go.
I will let go
If you will let go.
(Four, three, two)

Says here an astronaut
Put on a pair of diapers
Drove eighteen hours
To kill her boyfriend,
And in my hotel room, I’m wondering
If you read that story too
And if we both might
Be having the same imaginary conversation

Four, three, two, one
I’m letting you go.
I will let go
If you will let go.
(Four, three, two)

Oh, weightless as I close my eyes.
Oh, why? The ceiling opens in disguise.

Such a painful trip
To find out this is it
And when I go to sleep,
You’ll be waking up.

Four, three, two, one
I’m letting you go.
I will let go
If you will let go . . .